I don’t know about other local papers, but the local weekly paper for Enfield use to have a police blotter listing a select number of arrests and incidences over the last week.  The blotter was probably the best thing about the paper besides finding yourself covered in the high school sports section.  TU has a similar blotter entitled “Campus Crimewatch” in which Campus Security lists any incidences which required a report to be filed.  Cases tend to mostly involved party shutdowns, public drunkenness or parking violators getting their car towed.  Yet every now and then something pops up in the blotter that makes you scratch your head and wonder. Here’s one such example from last Thursday

A student reported being harassed by a non-TU person they met at an off-campus restaurant a few days earlier. The student, wanting to practice their Spanish, conversed with the Hispanic suspect and gave their address and phone number to the suspect. The suspect began contacting the student’s cell phone constantly and then arrived uninvited to the student’s apartment wanting to be let in. The student contacted Security and told the suspect to leave her alone. The suspect left the area prior to Officers arrival and has not returned to the campus. A copy of this report will be forwarded to Housing and Student Affairs for their review.

I don’t know about you but I generally didn’t head into restaurants and start speaking with people to practice my Spanish. Nor did I give a random person I had just met my phone number and address.  Here’s hoping Ms. Let’s Practice Spanish doesn’t get too many emails from Nigerian Princes.

Bonus blotter report:

An employee reported their catalytic converter stolen from their vehicle while it was parked in the Harvard Lot. Suspects are unknown and an investigation is pending.

Here’s an excellent piece from “Puck Daddy” that not only summarizes the current discussion of whether or not the Atlanta Thrashers will relocate to Canada but also provides a solid no in response. To quote the takeaway

Bettman’s reign in the NHL has been one of expansion, not contraction; of venturing forth to new frontiers, rather than retreating to comfort zones.

The success of these initiatives can, and should, be dissected and debated. But there’s no question that moving a Bettman era expansion or relocated team (like Atlanta or Phoenix) north of the border carries with it a sense of defeat, of failure, of having staked a claim in a new market and then having seen that market, for whatever reason, reject the NHL.

And you expect Gary Bettman to symbolically admit tothat?

Not only would it be a sign of defeat for Bettman but the ill will created towards the league in any city with relocation can’t be something anyone in the NHL front offices hopes for. Plus, for people in Hartford still dreaming about a return of the real whale take a look at the cities mentioned. If you were hoping for Hartford you probably don’t want to look.

I was given one of the Keurig Coffee Makers (The Platinum Series as a Christmas present from a relative and have enjoyed it so far. I did happen to glance at some reviews online as I was registering the machine to get some free “K-Cups” and noticed there’s quite a bit of negative reviews on the machine. I tend to ignore online reviews as those who have issues tend to be more vocal than those who have the machine and love it.

So anyone have one and run into issues with it? I also welcome suggestions for flavors to try.

Yes that’s Lieberman appearing on Fox News and seemingly calling for prosecuting the New York Times for publishing the cables.

Again, if my understanding of the law is correct, as long as a company or organization did not come into possession of material through illegal means then they didn’t commit a crime. So if Julian Assange did provide help to Bradley Manning or whoever stole the material than yes he could be prosecuted for something. But if he was simply passed the documents then it would seem the only person who committed a crime was whoever leaked the cables.

That being said the government could argue that the leaking of the cables and other documents provides a serious and imminent threat to the national security of the United States but it would seem the government has undermined themselves on this. Robert Gates has stated that the cables pose a minimal risk to the national security interests and there’s been little proof that anyone has been seriously harmed or put in jeopardy by the leaking of the cables. The protections on free speech and press in this country necessitate a very heavy burden of proof, something the whining of Lieberman and others doesn’t meet.

It’s a scray thought to have a sitting US Senator publicly indicate a willingness to censure and prosecute the press in the United States.

Earlier this year I made the move off of Tumblr after realizing their backup option for blogs hosted on the site was simply scraping everything off the blog and putting it on your desktop is individual html pages. When I moved off the site I had to spend a good day and a half hand importing into WordPress and editing the entries. I returned to Tumblr last month only to find them having tons of issues ranging from over capacity to just erroring for no apparent reason.

I still maintain a tumblr blog for links but nothing else, I don’t trust a company that provides minimal backup tools to host anything of “importance,” and it looks like I made the right call. Gruber points out that Tumblr has been down for 13 hours straight and says they’re trying to recover from an issue in their database clusters. I’m no tech guy but usually when I hear databases and issues it’s generally not a good thing.

What’s made worse by all of this is that the staff has literally said nothing about any of the issues the site has had over the last few months. The Staff Blog is obviously unreachable but the only thing that they’ve posted there in the last few months is either promotions of new features or promoting all the hip blogs they have on the site.

I’ll be trying to work out a way to incorporate links on this blog in the near future but once Tumblr gets back up and running I’ll be shutting down the account over there.

That time of the year is upon us again, the time only truly enjoyed by local chamber of commerces, NCAA brass, and compulsive gamblers. Yes it’s time for the College bowl season, a slate of 34 meaningless exposition games and one meaningful national championship match. To help plan your next five weeks (yes five) of college football watching, here’s your (un)edumacated guide to the bowl season. ¹ All games on ESPN unless noted and all times Eastern.

New Mexico Bowl | BYU (6-6) v. UTEP (6-6) | Dec. 18 | 2:00 PM

Is this the same BYU that ESPN just signed to some multi-million dollar television contract? I guess they have the money and it fits their scheme to get all of college football on the network. Cougs.

Humanitarian Bowl | Northern Illinois (10-3) v. Fresno St. (8-4) | Dec. 18 | 5:30 PM

There’s nothing humane about losing a MAC championship no one watched and then having to play in Boise. It’s like agreeing to play in the ninth level of hell for money. Whores. Northern Illinois over the Walrus.

New Orleans Bowl | Ohio (8-4) v. Troy (7-5) | Dec. 18 | 9:00 PM

Had to look up where Troy was from. There’s from Alabama. Which has to suck when the in-state cousins keep managing to do important stuff. Small steps I guess. Bobcats.

Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl St. Petersburg | Southern Miss (8-4) v. Louisville (6-6) | Dec. 21 | 8:00 PM

ESPN lists this as the Beef ‘O’ Brady Bowl St. Petersburg Bowl. Either way Southern Miss rolls while the rest of us get drunk at a Beef ‘O’ Brady’s.

Las Vegas Bowl | Utah (10-2) v. Boise St. (11-1) | Dec. 22 | 8:00 PM

Look on the bright side Boise, you may not be in the BCS but you can take your Las Vegas Bowl winnings and head down to the MGM Grand and probably triple what you’d get from the BCS.

Poinsettia Bowl | Navy (8-3) v. San Diego St. (8-4) | Dec. 23 | 8:00 PM

I got nothing. Navy.

Hawaii Bowl | Hawaii (10-3) v. Tulsa (9-3) | Dec. 24 | 8:00 PM

This bowl has to have been created solely to give Hawaii a home bowl game because we all know what happens when they travel off the island to play. Going with the homer pick, Tulsa.

Little Caesar’s Bowl | FIU (6-6) v. Toledo (8-4) | Dec. 26 | 8:30 PM

Who says Detroit always gets the raw end of the deal? They’ve got a rebounding city and the clear highlight of the bowl season. I’m sure the stands will be packed for this one. Toledo.

Independence Bowl | Air Force (8-4) v. Georgia Tech (6-6) | Dec. 27 | 5:00 PM | ESPN2

Lee Corso should be forced to call this one because he’ll be able to pull out his NCAA Football commentary “Ohhh…The Option!” for every play. Falcons.

Champs Sports Bowl | West Virginia (9-3) v. NC State (8-4) | Dec. 28 | 6:30 PM

West Virginia gets stuck here, ranked and with a better record than Uconn. Serves them right. Wolfpack.

Insight Bowl | Missouri (10-2) v. Iowa (7-5) | Dec. 28 | 10:00 PM

At least the bowl isn’t on the NFL Network this year. Missouri over patriotic Ricky Stanzi.

Military Bowl | East Carolina (6-6) v. Maryland (8-4) | Dec. 29 | 2:30 PM

What kind of pirate wears purple (besides gay ones)? East Carolina. Maryland rolls and Ralph Friedgen gets to go to Chuck E. Cheese’s afterwards.

Texas Bowl | Illinois (6-6) v. Baylor (7-5) | Dec. 29 | 6:00 PM

At one point during the season Baylor was leading the Big 12 South. Then they got rolled by Oklahoma St and Oklahoma. At least they beat Texas. Baylor.

Alamo Bowl | Oklahoma St (10-2) v. Arizona (7-5) | Dec. 29 | 9:15 PM

Mike Gundy and the ‘Pokes lost out in their first battle with the Stoops family. They’ll win the second one over the free falling Wildcats.

Armed Forces Bowl | Army (6-5) v. SMU (7-6) | Dec. 30 | 12:00 PM

The only reason the ponies are here is because they beat Tulsa early in the season when the team wasn’t all there. As a reward for that and for losing the Conference USA title game they get a home game. Damn Methodists. Black Knights.

Pinstripe Bowl | Kansas St. (7-5) v. Syracuse (7-5) | Dec. 30 | 3:20 PM

Who are we kidding about this one? Cliff Lee will be picking out his jersey number in the front office while 100 fans sit around in the stands watching this one. For those fans, Kansas St.

Music City Bowl | UNC (7-5) v. Tennessee (6-6) | Dec. 30 | 6:40 PM

The ten year old in side of me cried when it saw this was no longer the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl. Hehe, Gaylord. Dinner at Bruce Pearl’s house after the loss. I hear he makes really good comfort food.

Holiday Bowl | Nebraska (10-3) v. Washington (6-6) | Dec. 30 | 10:00 PM

Nice door prize for the Huskers as they leave the Big 12. They rolled over Washington earlier in the season, but that was when Martinez could play. Huskers.

Meineke Car Care Bowl | South Florida (7-5) v. Clemson (6-6) | Dec. 31 | 12:00 PM

This remains me, my car needs an oil change. Clemson.

Sun Bowl | Notre Dame (7-5) v. Miami (FL) (7-5) | Dec. 31 | 2:00 PM | CBS

Fightin’ Irish if they don’t spend too much time with Jose Cuervo.

Liberty Bowl | Central Florida (10-3) v. Georgia (6-6) | Dec. 31 | 3:30 PM

Fun fact: The Liberty Bowl was first played in Philly, then moved to Atlantic City where it basically operated as arena football for a season and then moved to Memphis. Other fun fact, Georgia made it to a bowl. George O’Leery and the Knights.

Chick Fil-A Bowl | South Carolina (9-4) v. Florida St. (9-4) | Dec. 31 | 7:30 PM

For all the talk about South Carolina this season this looks like just another four loss season for the team. Cocks.

TicketCity Bowl | Northwestern (7-5) v. Texas Tech (7-5) | Jan. 1 | 12:00 PM | ESPNU

Tuberville has to be pissed about Auburn. After all he leaves and two years later he’s stuck playing in the Cotton Bowl. Not the Cotton Bowl Bowl, just at Cotton Bowl. Tech.

Outback Bowl | Florida (7-5) v. Penn State (7-5) | Jan. 1 | 1:00 PM | ABC

Joe Paterno is such a nice old man. I could also go for a blooming onion. Eh, Florida.

Capital One Bowl | Alabama (9-3) v. Michigan St. (11-1) | Jan. 1 | 1:00 PM

This use to be the Tangerine Bowl and now it’s named for some company that sends me piles of junk mail. I hope Cincinnati’s mascot wins the mascot challenge, should help with his legal fees. Tide.

Gator Bowl | Miss State (8-4)  v. Michigan (7-5) | Jan. 1 | 1:30 PM | ESPN2

A win in this is going to save Rich Rod’s career? Jeez that’s some low standards. Miss State and mercifully end Rich Rod’s Michigan career.

Rose Bowl | Wisconsin (11-1) v. TCU (12-0) | Jan. 1 | 5:00 PM

I hope they don’t bring Keith Jackson out of the crypt to call this one. Wisconsin opens up on TCU.

Fiesta Bowl | UConn (8-4) v. Oklahoma (11-2) | Jan. 1 | 8:30 PM

Remember when Boise State came in and no one gave them a chance and they did something bad to Oklahoma? Remember when West Virginia, newly divorced from Rich Rod, came in and also did something bad? Well UConn isn’t going to do that. OU gets their first BCS win since 2000.

Orange Bowl | Stanford (11-1) v. Virginia Tech (11-2) | Jan. 3 | 8:30 PM

How is it that the Hokies managed to lose to James Madison and still end up in a semi-worthwhile bowl? Andrew Luck and the tree roll.

Sugar Bowl | Ohio St. (11-1) v. Arkansas (10-2)  | Jan. 4 | 8:30 PM

Remember when we were talking about Pryor being a shoe in for the Heisman? Good times. Hogs.

GoDaddy.com Bowl | Middle Tennessee (6-6) v. Miami (OH) (9-4) | Jan. 6 | 8:00 PM

Congratulations Miami (of Ohio) you won the MAC Championship and a ticket to Mobile, Alabama. Still beats Boise. Redhawks.

Cotton Bowl | LSU (10-2) v. Texas A&M (9-3) | Jan. 7 | 8:00 PM | Fox

Les Miles will need to import his own grass seeing as how the Cotton Bowl won’t be at the Cotton Bowl. Tigers.

BBVA Compass Bowl | Pittsburgh (7-5) v. Kentucky (6-6) | Jan. 8 | 12:00 PM

Pitt could have gone to the Fiesta Bowl had they just won again West Virginia. Instead they get Alabama. Dion Lewis is pretty good. Pitt.

Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl | Nevada (12-1) v. Boston College (7-5) | Jan. 9 | 9:00 PM

Can I talk bad about a bowl that has a team that beat Boise, a player who survived cancer and a name that will supposedly fight hunger? Nope. Nevada.

BCS National Championship Game | Oregon (12-0) v. Auburn (13-0) | Jan. 10 | 8:30 PM

We’re finally here. The only freaking game in this whole post that actually matters for anything. It’s the metrosexual, coffee drinking hippies versus Cam Newton, and Cam isn’t going to care one bit about the game. After all his father will be finalizing his signing bonus with the Bills by this time. Was that laptop worth it Jeremiah? Did you learn a lesson?

So there we go folks. A full slate of action packed and lovely games to amuse you through the rest of the holiday season. Be careful, watch the eggnog, and try not to shoot the TV at any point.

SB Nation asked the answered everyone is going to be harping on for the next month, is UConn the worst BCS team ever? The UConn Blog, the basin of objectively it is, answers in the affirmative. I find it hard to argue they’re not having lost to Rutgers, Temple, Louisville and Michigan, but that’s overlooking quite a lot.

For one UConn is the worst BCS team ever because Pittsburgh lost to West Virginia. Had they won we’d still be looking at a four loss Big East team in the BCS. UConn also won the games it needed to, it beat both West Virginia and Pittsburgh. More importantly though is the sheer progress Randy Edsall has made with the program in the ten years since its been in FBS and the seven it’s been in the Big East.

Up until 2002 Uconn was playing games in Memorial Stadium stuck behind Gampel Pavilion, a clear sign of where the school’s sporting interests lied. Randy Edsall’s success with the team has created a football culture at what use to be a basketball school. Furthermore Edsall did a magnificence job keeping a team together that confronted the murder of a fellow teammate last season.

It truly is a shame that a broken system is going to cloud what Randy Edsall and Uconn has done in the last ten years. Of course my affection for Uconn football won’t stop me from rooting for their defeat should they meet up with the Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl (which of course could turn out like Boise State given OU’s BCS bowl record).

From the New York Times

Because you know no one is fearful of the web in the good ‘ole US of A.

I had read a few of “media diet” features on the Atlantic Wire, but stumbled across it again this morning and spent some time gazing into the lives of establishment media. Most of the posts were largely the same, almost all read the New York Times, Post, Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, The Atlantic as well as listen to NPR. Almost all of them like print over electronic and a lot of them have a dislike for blogs. Again nothing that interesting or original from the in-crowd, but I still find it interesting to read about other people’s habits, partly, I guess, to see if there’s something I’m missing. (Which is the same reason to read The Setup, the same principle only applied to technology)

So if anyone is curious what an average Grad Student reads on a daily basis have fun, if not there’s obviously something wrong with you and you probably should have it looked in to.

To be honest I don’t really have a daily routine of any sort because the stuff that needs to be done ebbs and flows and invariably stuff for enjoyment takes a backseat. I do wish I had a daily routine and have been trying to force myself into one for a while now yet it invariably fails like diets or me trying to get up at 5 in the morning. So I guess this is more of a what I read and how I wish it would happen post rather than anything else. And I’ve now written three introduction paragraphs with nothing substantive (can these be substantive?)

On a good day I’d get up at 5 in the morning, pour the coffee and tune into the morning show from Springfield, Mass’s Rock 102. It’s crass, pointless and just the way to start off a day. While that’s on I skim the websites of the Hartford Courant and Tulsa World which is mostly to read the editorials, sports and maybe a news story if it catches my eye. I use to get the dead tree edition of the World but after repeated delivery issues (not showing up for days on end, a paperboy who found it cool to see if it could get the paper up to the third floor from the ground) I let the subscription end and just read it online for free. About the only thing I miss from the paper is the daily rundown of what sports I can watch on TV. I then turn to my RSS feeds and emails of Ezra Klein’s Wonkbook and Mike Allen’s Playbook. When finished I eat and shower and then listen to the rest of the radio morning show.

During the day I tend to avoid the Internet whenever I can otherwise I end up clicking too many links and suddenly it’s 4PM. If I listen to anything during the day it’s MP3s on shuffle or the local classic rock station. I do try to listen to Colin McEnroe’s show on WNPR in Connecticut at noon as its a delightful mix of politics, culture, and the weird but that comes and goes.

I get dead tree copies of Wired, Foreign Policy, Time, and Reason, the first two I spend the most time with. I only get Time because invariably a relative’s kid is selling magazines for school and its cheap enough and I only have Reason because I donated and it was in the thank gift bundle.

Television is mostly spent on sports (college, baseball, football, hockey, and when I remember real football) and the few series I remember to watch (mostly AMC’s, excluding Mad Men). Frankly I wish for day when we can get a la carte cable packages and I can get rid of the hundreds of channels I don’t watch.

My media diet in truth consists of stuff I really wish I had the time to read and stuff I have to read. I’ve got a bookcase full of books I’d love to read and an instapaper queue a mile long.

And now you know.

A lovely set of pictures is up on the Big Picture relating to the start of winter. Snow around Tulsa is hit or miss and when it does fall its only a few inches yet still manages to shut the city down for three days or so.

Anyway other favorites from the set include #4 with Darth Vader, #6 with a cabin I’d love to have in retirement and #17 which looks to be straight out of Narnia.

From Bruce Plante of the Tulsa World and provided without comment

Joe Lieberman has done a lot of loathsome things since I’ve been old enough to care about politics, including but not limited to: his stances on Iran and Iraq, his 2006 re-election campaign and his 2008 RNC speech. Yet today I can honestly say I’ve never been more ashamed to say I’m from Connecticut and thus represented by Lieberman. Why? If you haven’t heard grab a puke barrel and head over here for a full rundown of Lieberman’s anti-Wikileaks campaign.

It’s one thing if Amazon would choose to reject hosting Wikileaks independently and on their own, because just as with the pedophile book, it’s not a first amendment issue. Two private individuals can enter into or not enter into contracts at their will. Amazon can choose to host one website but not another and that’d be fine. But it looks like Joe pulled some strings and got Amazon to remove hosting Wikileaks because he doesn’t like them.

Joe’s position that, ”any other company or organization that is hosting Wikileaks [should] immediately terminate its relationship with them,” is basically like arguing the New York Times should not have been carried following the Pentagon Papers. As long as Wikileaks did nothing illegal to get the diplomatic cables (i.e. steal them) then it would seem pretty clear that they’ve done nothing illegal under US law. Bradley Manning, or whoever passed the cables onto them, is the one that can be held responsible but that doesn’t stop the information from getting out.

Honestly the only reason people are upset about these cables is because it sheds light on the stuff they were previously doing (or supported) and may put those positions in a bad light. Robert Gates himself said the impact of the cables would be minor, yet that won’t stop pundits from saying Wikileaks has blood on their hands or that Assange should be assassinated without due process. I applaud Wikileaks fhey’re doing and probably should mail Lieberman a copy of New York Times Co. v. United States.

Addendum

Lieberman doubles down saying we “need to put pressure on any companies [that are] providing that kind of access to the Internet to Wikileaks,”

He goes on to argue Assange needs to be apprehended and brought to trial because if we don’t “this will keep happening.” In other words Lieberman wants Assange’s scalp to serve as a warning to anyone else who wants to hold politicians accountable, do it and end up like Julian.